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This study employed a mixed methods research design to explore the influence of a year-long professional development (PD) on the 1st grade team of elementary school teachers' cultural competencies as they integrated culturally relevant robot coding activities into mathematics instruction. Culturally relevant mathematics pedagogy (CRMP) promotes academic success by fostering conceptual understanding, leveraging students' cultural knowledge, building social connections, and engaging mathematics from a social justice lens through the core elements of demand, relevance, and agency. The results indicate that the PD sessions improved some of teachers' cultural competencies, such as competency in modeling high expectations and in drawing on student culture. In addition, teachers consistently demonstrated strong cultural competencies in establishing supportive classroom norms, promoting inclusive environments, and recognizing student differences. The observed CRMP scores reflect teachers’ growth trends in the demand dimension of implemented mathematics tasks. However, they struggled implementing mathematics tasks that reflect authentic relevance and agency, even though all three core dimensions of CRMP were evident in the designed tasks. Teachers' self-reports indicated a shift toward more student-centered instruction, which is consistent with increased tasks’ demand.
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This content will become publicly available on January 14, 2026
Exploring Racial Justice with Culturally Responsive Mathematical Modeling in the Primary Grades: Cultivating Criticality in the Problem-Based Learning Space
This study explores the integration of culturally responsive mathematical modeling (CRMM) in primary grades to promote racial justice and critical consciousness. The research focuses on how CRMM can support problem-based learning (PBL) by engaging students in analyzing real-world issues through mathematics. CRMM leverages students' cultural knowledge, identities, and experiences to critically examine and address social justice issues, such as racial representation in classroom libraries. The study utilizes a case study approach to investigate the supports and challenges faced by two primary grade teachers in designing and implementing a CRMM task, the Library Diversity Project. This project aimed to evaluate and improve the fairness of classroom library collections by analyzing the representation of different racial and cultural groups in children's books. The research highlights the importance of collegial support, critical reflection, and the use of specific pedagogical tools, such as decision matrices and graphical representations, in facilitating CRMM. Key findings indicate that CRMM tasks can cultivate critical awareness and empathy among students, enabling them to take action to address inequities. The study also unveils the complexity of implementing CRMM, particularly in navigating political, contextual, and mathematical challenges. Teachers' critical reflexivity and collaboration were essential in addressing these challenges and fostering a learning environment that allowed students to use mathematics to analyze an issue and take action. The research contributes to the literature on equity-focused mathematics education by providing empirical evidence of the potential of CRMM to promote social justice in the primary grades. It emphasizes the need for ongoing professional development and support for teachers to effectively integrate CRMM into their practice. The study concludes with recommendations for future research and practice in culturally responsive mathematics teaching.
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- PAR ID:
- 10611486
- Publisher / Repository:
- Open Access
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1541-5015
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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